Emergence of New Centre-Right Wing?

[Qin Shi Huangdi]

I think something that was forgotten in the flurry of the 2010 midterm elections was the fact that Mark Steven Kirk (who by getting Barack Obama's Senate seat was the sweetest victory of all IMO) is a moderate Republican and Brown was elected in January in MA joining Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins. Along with that Chafee's winning in RI and Murkowski seems to beating the Tea Partyier. Might this be the seeds of a new moderate Republican wing as opposed to the regular conservatives (McCain, Graham,) and the Tea Partiers (DeMint, Rubio etc.)?

[SmartAlecCat]

The democrats are the center right party. The U.S. doesn't actually have a left wing party...

[Qin Shi Huangdi]

Originally Posted by SmartAlecCat

The democrats are the center right party. The U.S. doesn't actually have a left wing party...

Depends on the individual Democrat. By your logic Republicans can be considered liberals when compared to the Wahhabism of Saudi Arabia or the Mullahism of Iran.

[BrainGlutton]

If so, then the ongoing intraparty war for control of the GOP just got a whole lot more complicated.

[Evil Captor]

Ah, but American politics has shift FAR to the right in the last couple of decades. Really, it's true ... NIXON would be a flaming liberal in this Congress. NIXON! There simply is no far left, what used to be the center left is now at the far fringes of the party. We can't even get an overwhelmingly sane idea like single payer health insurance passed in this country, and the Supreme Court has declared the law of the land to be "one dollar, one vote."

[Diogenes the Cynic]

Reagan was economically left of Obama. We have no left wing in this country.

[Vinyl Turnip]

Your search - Centre-Right Wing - did not match any documents.

Did you mean: Center-Right Wing or are you not past that pretentious "I'll be 'unique' and use British spellings!" phase of your development?

[foolsguinea]

Oh good lord it's Noah Webster.

[Attack from the 3rd dimension]

Originally Posted by foolsguinea

Oh good lord it's Noah Webster.

Ha! Noah Webster would be a socialist by todays standards, as would George Washington. King George would be left of center, unless Qin Shi Huangdi were typing, in which case he'd be left of centre!

[Vinyl Turnip]

Originally Posted by foolsguinea

Oh good lord it's Noah Webster.

Did you mean: Noer Webstre?

[Chronos]

We can hope. It'd certainly be nice to go back to having two sane parties.

[Qin Shi Huangdi]

Originally Posted by Diogenes the Cynic

Reagan was economically left of Obama. We have no left wing in this country.

How so exactly? Reagan as far as I can see even opposed Medicare much less UHC.

[Diogenes the Cynic]

Reagan raised more taxes than any President in history. Obama gave the biggest tax CUT in history. Reagan even raised taxes during a recession. As Governor of California he raised taxes by 30%. Reagan was a taxin' fool. Obama makes Reagan look like Karl Marx.

[Diogenes the Cynic]

Obama didn't pass UHC, by the way. He passed a conservative health care reform bill.

[suranyi]

Originally Posted by Diogenes the Cynic

Reagan raised more taxes than any President in history. Obama gave the biggest tax CUT in history. Reagan even raised taxes during a recession. As Governor of California he raised taxes by 30%. Reagan was a taxin' fool. Obama makes Reagan look like Karl Marx.

It's true that the governerships of Reagan and Jerry Brown were very different from the way people seem to remember them. Reagan raised taxes substantially and Brown kept them unchanged, maybe even lowered them. Somehow in the recent election the Republicans tried, and largely succeeded I think, to paint Brown as someone who increased taxes dramatically last time he was governor, when that is far from the case.

[waterj2]

There's no new center-right movement. Republicans in solidly blue states like MA and IL are more liberal than most other Republicans. In a year like 2006, a state like Rhode Island dumps a guy like Lincoln Chafee because no matter how centrist he is, Republicans are very unpopular there. In a year like 2010, a state like Rhode Island elects a guy like Lincoln Chafee because the Democrats aren't as popular (and he's no longer tied to the Republicans, who still aren't that popular in Rhode Island).

Or perhaps how Schwarzenegger could win a few years ago when he didn't have to run in a Republican primary that probably would have eliminated anyone who could win in the general. From what I understand, Republicans in California tend to be very conservative, while the Democrats are very liberal. Massachusetts Republicans are pretty centrist by national standards, on the other hand. Not that there are many of them.

This isn't about to be a nationwide trend. The only interesting thing about this year is that the Tea Party screwed this pattern up, costing at least a sure win in Delaware, even if the wave did bring in a few who would normally be too conservative to win their states. Moderate Republicans win in places where mainstream Republicans don't have a shot. Basically a handful of solid blue states, and sometimes municipal elections in big cities (which are pretty much all solidly Democratic in, say, Presidential elections).

And Murkowski is a mainstream Republican. Her opponent simply completely imploded.